A Homily – The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Wisdom 7:7-11

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):12-17

Second Reading – Hebrews 4:12-13

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

The Gospel According to Mark 10:17-30 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The wise pray for wisdom, not things, not outcomes; pray for wisdom and you will be graced by it, it is yours…simply in the asking.

Incomparable wisdom, its spirit is ready and our constant aid.

Know this.

God does not intervene in our lives.

God is with us, yes; God speaks to us, always…but not in words. The presence of God’s spirit within us, is drawing us in with a gentle gravity. God dwells within everyone in this same way. The divine spirit within us, is a constitutive element of our being that manifests itself as a desire and longing for God.

God does not interject God’s self into our lives, neither does God determine our choices, nor does manipulate their consequences, either for us or against us.

When we find refuge in the divine, it is a peace we have made for ourselves; we are the actor and God is the facilitator.

God is never angry with us; we do not suffer because God desires to see us suffer, we do not sorrow because it pleases God to see us sorrowful. We were made with these capacities and bound to encounter the world through them so that we may discover the value of each other through them, and with them we are also able to experience joy and become teachers of the way.

When we suffer or are sorrowful, when we cause suffering or sorrow in others, or when we rejoice and are glad; God is with us, feeling what we feel, knowing what we know and going through our experience as we experience it ourselves.

Be mindful.

God is the eternal creator of all that is; and we are but motes of dust in the face of the infinite. We come and we go like dew in the morning, like frost in the desert that vanishes before the sun.

Each of us individually, and the whole of us together are infinitely less than the infinite God, and yet the real presence of God is within us, like a ray of light, originating in time and space and extending beyond their horizon,

Everything that exists, exists within God, and the fullness of God exists within you.

Understand this.

Jesus’ teaching cannot be conducted like a shell game, the way is not a bait and switch, nor is it a long con…though its teaching authority has been abused in these ways since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates.

The way is simple, the teaching of it cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.

God, the creator of the universe, God has hidden nothing from us, the truth is an open-secret, it is a s plain as day.

The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, they all have access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, the expectation of justice, of assurance of hope, and the joy of love.

Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike…in every generation you will see a new group labeling the elder group as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark, corrupt. It is an endless cycle, but the way remains the same; love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God through the loving service you provide to one another: your family, your friends, your neighbors, the stranger, even your adversary.

Just because a person is wise and powerful, learned and clever, or a child of the church, does not mean they will recognize the truth when they come upon it, or act upon it when they do.

It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned or the ways that you have been marginalized that give anyone of us the ability to tell how faithfully you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus when you have decided to accept the call.

What matters is the trueness of your heart, and your willingness to trust in the content of your hope.

Be mindful.

As we all go through life we are forced to navigate countless paradoxes, we encounter them like rapids in a rushing stream. We come through the difficult passage battered but blessed, even when we have broken if we remain in the way we will still be able to delight in the smile of a stranger, in the kindness of our beloved, in the opening of a flower, the smell of bread in the oven or a drink of cool water…and share it.

Consider the Gospel reading for today:

The kingdom of heaven is not a kingdom in the earthly sense, better to see it as a garden wherein we walk with God in friendship.

Jesus is wise to say that no-one is good but God alone, we would all do well to emulate his humility.

Remember.

In the parable of the rich young man, we are never told that he refuses Jesus, we are only told that he goes away sad. The parable does not say that he was sad because he would not do as Jesus asked, it merely says that he goes away sad, it may be that his sorrow is related to the fact that he has been asked to something difficult, he knows it will be hard, but he is determined.

This is the way.

Today’s reading also speaks of an expectation of rewards in heaven for good deeds done in the here and now…this is not the way. The good things we do in the here and no, do not deliver us into eternity, like some kind of pay it forward scheme, but rather, they bring the eternal blessing of the divine into the present moment.

The garden is not beyond time and out of reach, the garden is brought into being through the good things we do on behalf of each other, on behalf of the poor, the marginalized and the needy, everyday

It is only through service to one another that we serve God, through the love that we share here and now we experience the divine.

Therefore, give no thought to what will come in the afterlife, it will be according to God’s plan, and that is surety enough for me.

First Reading – Wisdom 7:7-11

I Esteemed Wisdom More than Sceptres or Thrones

I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.

I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones; compared with her, I held riches as nothing.

I reckoned no priceless stone to be her peer, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her silver ranks as mud.

I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.

In her company all good things came to me, at her hands riches not to be numbered.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):12-17

Let the Lord's Glory Shine Upon Us

In the morning, Lord, you fill us with your love.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord, you have been our refuge

  from generation to generation.

Before the mountains were born,

  before earth and heaven were conceived,

  from all time to all time, you are God.

You turn men into dust,

  you say to them “go back, children of men.”

A thousand years in your sight

  are like yesterday, that has passed;

  like a short watch in the night.

When you take them away, they will be nothing but a dream;

  like the grass that sprouts in the morning:

in the morning it grows and flowers,

  in the evening it withers and dries.

For we are made weak by your anger,

  thrown into confusion by your wrath.

you have gazed upon our transgressions;

  the light of your face illuminates our secrets.

All our days vanish in your anger,

  we use up our years in a single breath.

Seventy years are what we have,

  or eighty for the stronger ones;

and most of that is labour and sadness –

  quickly they pass, and we are gone.

Who can comprehend the power of your wrath?

  Who can behold the violence of your anger?

Teach us to reckon our days like this,

  so that our hearts may be led at last to wisdom.

Turn to us, Lord, how long must we wait?

  Let your servants call on you and be answered.

Fill us with your kindness in the morning,

  and we shall rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Give us joy for as long as you afflicted us,

  for all the years when we suffered.

Let your servants see your great works,

  and let their children see your glory.

Let the glory of the Lord God be upon us:

  make firm the work of your hands.

  Make firm the work of your hands.

Amen.

Alleluia

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 4:12-13

The Word of God Cuts More Finely than a Double-edged Sword

The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts. No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom

to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

Alleluia, alleluia!

How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 10:17-30 ©

Give Everything You Own to the Poor, and Follow Me

Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.’ Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them ‘how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were more astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’

Peter took this up. ‘What about us?’ he asked him. ‘We have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-eigth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Observation - October 9th, 2024, Wednesday

I hear the buzz of machinery

small motors and micro-processors

whirling clicks and whips

alternating frequencies

below the rumble of a jet

descending to the east of me

there is bird chatter in the interim

my windows rattle as a truck rolls by

the scent of drying foliage creeps 

through my open window

with the green and yellow light

of the morning sun

filtered by October’s maple canopy

A Homily – The Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Genesis 2:18-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 127(128)

Second Reading – Hebrews 2:9-11

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alternative Acclamation – 1 John 4:12

The Gospel According to Mark 10:2-16 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 This is not a cosmogonic myth of origins, it is a metaphor that argues for the primacy of the human race among the animals of the world, and that of man over woman.

 It is a poor argument

 The argument is won if and only if it is accepted that in the naming of the woman, by the man, the male asserts power over the female and becomes directive of her nature…to believe in this is to believe in a type of witchcraft.

 The writers of genesis would have you believe that this is the natural order of things. They also arrange the trope in a way that explains for them why children separate from their parents, but this second half of the treatment, while reasonably expressed, does not follow from the primary emphasis on naming, and the subjugation of women.

 The world is unjust but do not feat it; rather, hope for a better tomorrow. Believe that it is possible, live your life as if it were here and now.

  Do not fear God; there is no blessing in it.

 Fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that leads to total obliteration. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to shame, shame leads to hatred and that is the dark side, the path to sin.

 Trust in God, have faith and confidence in God’s love, expressed through God’s word, speaking through the seed of it that God has planted in you.

 Remember God’s servant, Job. Remember that the Sun will warm and then burn, before it scorches the earth completely, though if we are in the correct relationship to it, the sun will power our cities, and feed our crops, life affirming and sustaining.

 Be mindful.

 The rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle who points out with certainty that death awaits us all, and that though death will come for us, we shall continue to exist in God, as all things do, in the divine eternality of being.

 If we take the example of Jesus presented for us to follow…if we take that to heart and face the uncertainty of death with the certain knowledge that the demise of the body is not the demise of the spirit, if we trust in that and God’s plan for our salvation we are born again.

 Know this!

 You cannot serve God with lies and deceptions, God’s spirit is the spirit of truth.

 We make God known to each other through the quality of the love we manifest toward one another and for all human beings, whom God, the creator of the universe, resides in…God resides in everyone

 God resides in everyone, but not everyone acts as if this is true. A person may believe that this is true, but it still requires faith to live a life of love and service, even more to love the stranger, and greater still to love the enemy in your midst.

 Understand this.

 The faithful do not require proof of God’s presence; through the performance of miracles or by the presentation of any other credentials, the faithful know that God is present, in all times and places, God is living in all people…this cannot be proven through the recitation of a creed.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it expresses the really good news that is hidden-in-plain-sight in Jesus’ teaching on the way. He tells us:

 What God has united, man must not divide.

 Let me be clear about this, because the foundation of Christian faith and hope rests here, and the greater truth is this:

 What God has united, man cannot divide, it is injurious to try. It is harmful to the self and dangerous to society. It is destructive of the person and of the whole, because it is the essence of sin.

 While the reading for today begins with a discussion concerning the practicalities of divorce, and human relationships. In actuality it is a discussion about our fundamental relationship with God, and with each other.

 We are created in unity, we are created in this way, united both with one another and with God. There is nothing we can do to tear that unity apart.

 In John’s Gospel we read that all things were created in and through God, exist in God, by the will of God, and that without God not one things comes into being or continues to exist.

 Our fundamental, ontological make up is relational, originating in the creator flowing out to us, and to each other in a great web of being.

 Our relationships with each other are essential elements of our being. Our relationships do not just include our family and friends. We are in relationship to every other person who is, ever was, or ever will be, even those we despise, even our enemies are a part of who we are.

 We cannot change this, not even the power of sin cannot alter this reality, because God joined us together in this way.

 Here is the truth.

 When I say this teaching presents the heart of Christian faith and hope, I am speaking of Jesus’ teaching on salvation…which clearly promotes the concept that the salvation of one is not possible without the salvation of the whole…because the part exits with the whole as the whole does in the part...and that is the way of it.

First Reading – Genesis 2:18-24

A Man and His Wife Become One Body

The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’ So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.

 

The man exclaimed:

‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh!

This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 127(128)

Peaceful life in the Lord

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Blessed are all who fear the Lord

  and walk in his ways.

The food you have worked for, you will eat:

  God’s blessing will bring you good things.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

  on the side of your house.

Your children will be like olive shoots,

  seated round your table.

See, this is how the man is blessed

  who fears the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion:

  may you see the wealth of Jerusalem

  all the days of your life.

May you see your children’s children.

  Peace be on Israel.

Amen.

Alleluia.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 2:9-11

The One who Sanctifies is the Brother of Those who Are Sanctified

We see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for all mankind.

  As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord:

consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – 1 John 4:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 10:2-16 ©

What God has United, Man Must Not Divide

Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’

They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’

‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’

Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’ Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’

People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.

 

A Homily – The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

A Homily – The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Numbers 11:25-29

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 18(19):8,10,12-14

Second Reading – James 5:1-6

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

The Gospel According to Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 ©       

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Prophecy is not concerned with the divination of portents, clairaudience, clairvoyance or clairsentience; prophecy is not prescience.

 Prophecy is concerned with seeing the truth in the present moment and speaking it out loud; the prophet is concerned with matters of justice, the inclusion of the marginalized, the restoration of the disenfranchised, the return outcast and the exile. Prophecy calls us to fulfill the promise of the good, to be agents of providence, ensuring its fair distribution to everyone.

 The advent of a true prophet is rare, though the potential to be a prophet exists in all of us.

 Know this:

 God is the creator of all that is, of the entire universe and all of us who live within it.

 Consider the teaching of James, the brother of Jesus and bishop of Jerusalem; remember the wisdom of Ecclesiastes and know that everything is vanity. For the rich and the poor alike, everything ends in corruption; the earth and the moon, the sun and the stars, everything fades away before becoming a new creation.

 Be mindful.

 The fire awaits us all, not the fire of destruction but the fire of refinement; when we pass through it, corruption shall never take hold again and we will shine.

 Understand this!

 You cannot lie and serve God at one and the same time.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it comes from a period when the church was experiencing a significant amount of division among its leadership and members. The authors of Mark’s gospel, wrote it at least fifty years after Jesus died, about twenty years after Paul wrote his letters, at least ten years after Jerusalem and its temple had been destroyed by the Roman’s, its population dispersed and the last of Jesus’ disciples died.

 At this point in time the Church was in a precarious state. It was seen by most observers to be a minor sect of Judaism undergoing a lawful persecution by the traditional leadership of Jewish synagogues throughout the Empire.

 However, in reality the Church it had spread well past the ideology of Judaism and the Pharisaic movement within Judaism which had nurtured it. By this time the Christian movement had spread across North Africa, into the Italian peninsula, northward to Gaul, and eastward throughout Anatolia and Asia Minor.

 The Church was just as much gentile as it was Jewish, and it was thoroughly cosmopolitan. There were many who believed in their personal authority to teach in Jesus’ name, even though they were not connected to the Church through the mode of Apostolic succession; this was the lay of the land.

 The message from Today’s reading is not that the “heirs” of the church should have run down those whom they do not see as having a legitimate claim to teach in the name of Jesus, and to obstruct them, but to make common cause with them, advancing together in the way.

 

First Reading – Numbers 11:25-29

If Only the Whole People of the Lord were Prophets!

The Lord came down in the Cloud. He spoke with Moses, but took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit came on them they prophesied, but not again.

  Two men had stayed back in the camp; one was called Eldad and the other Medad. The spirit came down on them; though they had not gone to the Tent, their names were enrolled among the rest. These began to prophesy in the camp. The young man ran to tell this to Moses, ‘Look,’ he said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ Then said Joshua the son of Nun, who had served Moses from his youth, ‘My Lord Moses, stop them!’ Moses answered him, ‘Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to them all!’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 18(19):8,10,12-14

Praise of God the Creator

Blessed Are You, Lord, in the Vault of Heaven.

Alleluia, alleluia!

The skies tell the story of the glory of God,

  the firmament proclaims the work of his hands;

day pours out the news to day,

  night passes to night the knowledge.

Not a speech, not a word,

  not a voice goes unheard.

Their sound is spread throughout the earth,

  their message to all the corners of the world.

At the ends of the earth he has set up

  a dwelling place for the sun.

Like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

  it rejoices like an athlete at the race to be run.

It appears at the edge of the sky,

  runs its course to the sky’s furthest edge.

Nothing can hide from its heat.

Amen.

Blessed Are You, Lord, in the Vault of Heaven.

Alleluia, alleluia!

 

Second Reading – James 5:1-6

The Lord Hears the Cries of Those You Have Cheated

An answer for the rich. Start crying, weep for the miseries that are coming to you. Your wealth is all rotting, your clothes are all eaten up by moths. All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be your own sentence, and eat into your body. It was a burning fire that you stored up as your treasure for the last days. Labourers mowed your fields, and you cheated them – listen to the wages that you kept back, calling out; realise that the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart’s content. It was you who condemned the innocent and killed them; they offered you no resistance.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord: consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 ©

Do Not Stop Anyone from Working a Miracle in My Name

John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.

 

‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.

 

‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)